A Warrior Exiled by the Hero and His Lover

The White Gator bites me.

Its sharp fangs embed themselves and try to pierce my skin with a force similar to a nail trying to pierce wood.

I feel like I'm getting a lot of pressure points pinched.

It hurts a little.

"Toru-Dono!"

"Hm?"

"Why are you responding so casually!?"

Alusha's eyes expand to such an extent as if they were about to pop out of their sockets.

For someone who doesn't know my level, this scene must be a chilling spectacle.

Kaede and Frau are not worried at all, or they are just observing the minerals embedded in the walls.

They are not concerned about this situation.

After all, no one worries about being bitten by a kitten.

"Haaaaaa!"

"Gggghhh!"

"Toru-Dono?"

I entered the lizard's mouth and slid down its throat.

It's very narrow. This must be the stomach area.

I thrust my sword into the inner wall of the stomach and cut it from the inside.

I have nothing against you, but it is for the good of the elves.

And this will serve to make me a feast.

"Ugh, it reeks."

I cut the flesh from the inside and crawled out.

Blood dripped down my body and I was covered in sticky lizard mucus.

I should have defeated him in a way that wasn't so pathetic.

This victory feels very hollow.

The white lizard was rolling over and shaking.

"Hey, Alusha, mind if I take a dip in here?"

"Sure..."

"Cool, thank you."

I placed my sword in its sheath and took off my clothes.

Then I leapt into the pond.

Ooohhh, it's cold!

"Ha ha ha ha ha!"

"What is it?"

"You never cease to amaze me, Toru-Dono! This monster was the master of this place that has eaten and killed many elves! And then, just when I thought it was hard to kill, you come along and take it down so easily! And now it's lying dead in its own habitat!"

Alusha hits the floor and laughs out loud.

She must be under a lot of pressure trying to process all this.

Elves are so strange that they find this sort of thing amusing.

Poof, I'm going to dive to the bottom of the pond.

As long-lived as this monster may have been, it's hard to live in a place like this without food.

There must be food somewhere.

When I got to the bottom, I noticed a side hole.

A long tunnel led to the back of the cave.

When I reached the end of the tunnel, there was a very wide space.

Light was falling from above and the surface of the water glistened.

Aquatic plants covered the surroundings, and fish swam in front of me.

I see, so the cave pond is connected to this big lake.

I decided to go back to where my friends were.

"Is there a lake near here?"

"There is one. According to humans, you can catch a delicious type of fish there."

So, this pond was the place where that monster slept.

I kept the lizard in the magic storage.

I would like to strip it down before arriving at the village.

Elves don't eat meat. So they have no experience in such things.

"What the heck is wrong with me!? My level went up too high!"

Alusha is surprised when she checks her stats.

"What level have you reached?"

"I should be level 44, but now I'm level 120!"

"That's probably my fault."

Since I recognized Alusha as a partner, my experience UP skill affected her.

I will make an evaluation of our stats.

Me: 300 → 301

Kaede: 260 → 271

Frau: 220 → 243

Killing that monster was very beneficial with respect to experiences.

"I love my skills!

"No way."

Skills Evaluation [Lv15]. Chant Omission [Lv20]. Shock correction [Lv20]. Power level [Lv20]. Healing wave [Lv20].

Apparently... She seems to have broken the limits of her abilities.

However, unlike me, the upper limit of her skills is 20.

Frau is also amazed at her stats.

Skills

Her too? Unlike Kaede, she has few skills, all of them raised to the maximum. As expected, Frau did not hide her emotions.

"Something is wrong with my skills!"

"I don't think so."

"Look at that! My levels are amazing!"

"Yes, congratulations."

I will not give Alusha an explanation as to why she has risen so high.

It is a tedious thing to explain.

''Surely this must be a gift from the God of the Forest!''

That's what she chose to believe.

After returning to the village, we took refuge in the tower, not even bothering to eat.

We have to select what kind of scrolls we will keep as part of our reward.

There are a lot of scrolls, so we'd better hurry, or we won't be able to get out of here.

It's getting easier and easier to spend time here, so I feel like I could stay for months.

"I'll take five evaluation scrolls for now."

"Is that all you want?"

"I can't just depend on you Kaede all the time, and I'll take six scrolls with me for underwater breathing..."

"I don't think we have any need for those scrolls.."

I took her at her word and grabbed fifteen Underwater Breathing scrolls.

On the other shelves, Kaede and Frau are choosing the scrolls they want.

Frau flies with a scroll.

"I found the scroll with long-distance messaging magic you mentioned."

"Thank you. With this we will be able to communicate easily."

"What's that good for?"

Alusha asked curiously.

Messaging Scrolls: in a nutshell, you can send a mental message to the person you have in mind, it can be used anytime and anywhere.

It is an emergency communication method that can be life-saving.

"How many such scrolls are there?"

"I didn't count them, but there must be hundreds. They occupied several shelves."

"We're going to take 30 of those."

Frau flies away again.

That may be a lot, but we still have quite a few to choose from.

Although time is limited.

"Don't worry if you can't choose the ones you want right away. You can always come back to this village, you are our friends now, and you will always be welcome."

"Are you serious? Thank you very much, Alusha."

"Fufu"

"?"

Alusha turned red and placed her hand on her chest, then left the room.

I wonder what's wrong with her, is she sick?

I think I will ask Kaede to use healing magic on her later.

"Master, I found many amazing scrolls!"

Kaede came over with a big smile, carrying many scrolls.

As she placed them on the table in the corner of the room, she began to explain their uses one by one.

"This one absorbs magic power, this one lets you sleep well at night, this one increases your appetite, this one adjusts your rooms temperature to a pleasant degree at night, and this one shows your current address and position."

"...All are unnecessary."

"Huh!?"

A good night's sleep, a good appetite and a comfortable room temperature are everything to me.

I appreciate your concern, but I don't want anything that is useless.

"I don't need to absorb magic power."

"But if you run out of magic..."

"It's something I've been ignoring for a while, but I have an ability where I can borrow magical power, and I can even share it with other people."

It seems to be a rare skill, so Kaede has not been able to see it in my stats. I've already tested it, though, and it works.

The result was the exchange of magical power with others.

Between Kaede and me, I am by far the one with the most magical power.

If she runs out of magic power, I could lend her mine without any problem.

"So none of this is necessary?"

"Exactly. By the way, what's that scroll you have in the back?"

"Huh!? That's not a scroll!"

Hmmm... This is very suspicious.

I pulled out an evaluation scroll and checked what she was hiding.

[Improvement of smell].

.....I see.

Okay, let's pretend I didn't see that.